First Impressions
by Airyo
Summary: How Sasuke and Hinata would/should have met in canon. :D


Disclaimer: You know the spiel. I no own. XP

AN: Just a quick little oneshot I wrote for the SasuHina fanclub on DA contest: Across the SasuHina Universe. I'm SoAiryo on DA, so don't be alarmed by the slight difference in usernames. :) This particular theme required a scene where they would first meet in canon. I couldn't resist. Enjoy!

Note: Sasuke is 4, Itachi is 9.

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><p>First Impressions<p>

By Airyo

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><p>Sasuke had been so excited for the Hyuuga birthday party.<p>

Itachi actually agreed to attend. Even at the age of nine, the older Uchiha was already neck-deep in missions. Itachi was younger than everyone else in his team, and he could still trounce them with ease. Secretly, Sasuke was sure Itachi could probably beat that mean Fish-eye-man Hiashi too, but that wasn't very nice since the man was going to give them cake. Regardless, Itachi was finally squeezing out some free time for him.

So when all the other children at the party swarmed around _his_ big brother like a cloud of locusts, Sasuke's opinion of the party dropped exponentially. When Itachi didn't even try to shoo them away, Sasuke began planning his journey away from home that would end in a tragic demise after a heroic battle against a S-class miss- no, _twenty _S-class missing nin, and one of them had a terrible technique that would make even Itachi quake in his sandals. (Sasuke hadn't decided exactly what that technique was, but it was Terrible.) That'll teach him. Sasuke could already imagine the impassioned speech of regret that Itachi would give as he cried at his funeral.

But first, Sasuke had to figure out how to leave the Konoha gates.

Grumbling to himself, the little Uchiha stomped off to the side gardens. He'll make do with simply disappearing for now and make Itachi worry.

Unfortunately, someone already had the same idea for a hiding place.

It was Hinata. He'd been introduced to her at the beginning of the party, but she'd been hiding behind Fish-eye-man. All he'd seen was a crown of dark hair and a flash of pale lavender eyes. Sasuke had been far more preoccupied with the prospect of cake and time with Itachi, but he did think that her head resembled a mushroom. It was oddly cute, and at least her eyes didn't remind Sasuke of a dead fish like her father's.

Currently, said eyes were hidden by little hands as Hinata sniffled pitifully. Even at the wise old age of four, the little Uchiha understood that a person wasn't supposed to cry in the bushes at a birthday party.

Especially not the birthday girl herself.

He stood there awkwardly. The only girl he paid any attention to was his mother, and she was the one that did the comforting (not that he cried when he scraped his knee or anything silly like that). Sasuke scrunched his nose in thought. His favorite bedtime story was about a brave ninja who saved a princess...the princess had been crying too, the brave ninja had dried her tears.

That made sense.

Sasuke nodded to himself and pulled out the handkerchief that Mikoto had tucked into his sleeve before the party despite his mightiest protests. He reached over between her hands to dab away her tears like he'd seen in the pictures.

He accidentally poked her in the eye instead.

"Ow!" Hinata stared at him with hurt, moon eyes. Then her face crumpled and she began crying harder. She was bordering on outright wailing. The instinctual mechanism of survival all boys were born with kicked in.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" he said frantically, yelling to be heard over her screeches. Then he shoved the handkerchief at her and dashed away in a panic. He saw his mother approaching his direction.

"Sasuke-chan!" Mikoto gasped when he barreled into her arms and buried his face into her kimono. He didn't care that he looked childish (it's not like Itachi would notice anyways, the jerk). The roiling guilt of having done something horrible made him want to hide away from the world.

"Not chan," he muttered, correcting her more out of habit than irritation.

"Okay, Sasuke-kun," she said with a small laugh. "Can you tell me what's wrong?" He shook his head, face still concealed in the warm folds of her clothing. "Would it have anything to do with the crying Hinata-sama and your very strange screams of apology?" Sasuke stiffened. He was caught.

"Didn't mean to," he said petulantly, whine muffled by Mikoto's clothing. "She was already crying." A warm hand stroked his head.

"But you made it worse for her, didn't you?" A pause, and then Sasuke reluctantly nodded. Mikoto sighed. "Sasuke-chan, I think you should go give the poor girl a proper apology. Yelling 'sorry' at her probably scared her more. Can you do that for me?"

"Not chan," he grumbled, but didn't complain when the Uchiha matriarch gently nudged him towards where Hinata was hiding. Grudgingly, Sasuke made his way back to the scene of his crime.

She'd stopped weeping, but was still hiccuping slightly. She peered up at him hesitantly, as if she was afraid he'd come back to jab her in the other eye. Sasuke clasped his hands behind his back, eyes averted to the side as he pouted.

"M'sorry for poking you in the eye. Didn't mean to," he murmured. There was a long silence. "Hope you feel better," he added. He peeked at her and was relieved to see that she was smiling slightly.

"S'okay," she said quietly, though she still sounded waterlogged. "I know y-you didn't m-mean it."

"'course not," he agreed uncomfortably. Again, there was that suffocating silence. Sasuke bit his lip, itching to get away back to the party. "Well...I'm...gonna go get cake now."

"Oh, o-okay."

"Um, bye."

Sasuke began walking away. He glanced back at Hinata, and she waved hesitantly, fingers clasped around his handkerchief. She was kind of pretty in her formal kimono now that she wasn't leaking tears like a bad water jutsu. (And no, it wan't because heliked her or anything gross like that because...cooties!) The little Uchiha nodded solemnly in acknowledgement as he'd seen Itachi do so.

Then he hurried back to the party, eager to tell his big brother all about how he'd helped a crying princess just like the brave ninja in the story.

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><p>An:<p>

Sigh...I can't resist a good cute-fail scene. :3 Review and lemme know whatcha think!


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